Dissertation Defense in Sociology: Pavel Vasiliev

When

Campus Location

Office/Remote Location

Room B-225

Description

Pavel Vasiliev will defend his dissertation, Testing Orthodox Utilitarian and Extrajudicial Determinants of Incarceration in the US at the State Level, 1980-2005. Vasiliev's dissertation committee: Shannon Monnat, David Dickens, Andrew Spivak, Bo Bernhard and Randall Shelden invite you to attend.

Abstract:

This project is a theory-driven secondary data analysis of state-level incarceration trends in the U.S. between 1980 and 2005. Vasiliev replicates and advances Smith’s (2004) study of the relationship between the socioeconomic, demographic, political, electoral, and criminal justice factors and incarceration rates at the state level. The purpose of this project is to determine the empirical validity of the major explanations of the incarceration trends in the U.S. Vasiliev advances Smith’s (2004) study using important novel elements. First, he extends the scrutinized historic period by a decade by compiling time-series data for 1980-2005. Second, he employs a more sophisticated analytic technique by utilizing multilevel linear models designed to control for repeated measures of state-level data. Third, he includes the measures of partisan state government control and district electoral vulnerability, utilizing the Ranney index (1965; 1976) and Holbrook Van Dunk (1993) measure. The major finding of this project is the lingering association between the percent of state residents that are African American and incarceration rates net of violent crime and socioeconomic disadvantage. Results of hypothesis testing suggest that both utilitarian and extrajudicial factors are associated with incarceration in the U.S. hence both consensus and conflict views of incarceration are supported.